{"id":103902,"date":"2025-08-30T23:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103902\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T23:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T23:32:16","slug":"homebuyers-got-cold-feet-this-summer-will-the-chill-continue-this-fall-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103902\/","title":{"rendered":"Homebuyers got cold feet this summer. Will the chill continue this fall? – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

While many parts of Canada sweltered under high temperatures this summer, the country\u2019s housing market<\/a> stayed chilly with homebuyers feeling spooked.<\/p>\n

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But experts say the summer of buyers getting cold feet might not be over just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been anything but a traditional housing market,\u201d said Penelope Graham, mortgage expert at Ratehub.ca.<\/p>\n

The threat of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump loomed large over Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were very anxious and nervous when these tariff threats were initially made,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Fears around a possible recession and widespread job loss \u201cdissuaded a lot of people from making their home buying decision,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Before the tariff threats, it was expected that 2025 would see quite a hot housing market.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the latter months of 2024, it was anticipated that this would be quite a hot housing market. There was a lot of pent up demand. People had been waiting out very high interest rates and we were finally seeing those come down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Around 467,100 old homes are expected to be resold in Canada this year, a drop of 3.5 per cent compared to last year, an RBC report<\/a> said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the pullback \u2014 a drop of 4.1 per cent \u2014 has already taken place in the first six months of the year, it added.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s summer housing market was not just atypical for the economic anxiety Canadians were feeling, but also because buyers got more choice in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of product that\u2019s on the marketplace right now,\u201d said Royal LePage broker Shawn Zigelstein, adding that unsold houses have been staying on market a lot longer than normal.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHome sales steady in April, but buyers gain upper hand as listings rise\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tInspections reveal flaws in homes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

While some buyers are spooked from entering the market, others have pulled out of the home-buying process midway through.<\/p>\n

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Some experts say this market has given buyers some breathing room from making big decisions quickly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a regular Toronto market, there\u2019s no time for cold feet. You place offers unconditionally, get it accepted, and then you deal with repercussions later,\u201d said Rishard Rameez, CEO of real estate brokerage Zown.<\/p>\n

During the peak of the Canadian housing market in 2022, it was rare in some markets for buyers to be able to place any conditions whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer, buyers have been able to take a less intense route to buying a home. They\u2019re able to put conditions in place before a transaction goes through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of people back out of the home search process. A lot of people who started the process with us, got a mortgage pre-approval, got into the market, looked at a few properties, delayed their home buying plan until next year,\u201d Rameez added.<\/p>\n

The biggest reason for deals falling through and buyers getting cold feet is that would-be purchasers now have the time to put in place home inspection and financing conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a couple who placed an offer on a property. The property looked great, but then we did the inspection. The report said there was asbestos in the building. That poses a health risk and, potentially, insurance issues as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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The 2025 summer market was not a \u201cjump first\u201d market, Zigelstein said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re (buyers) just being very strategic along the process of what they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s not a jump first market, which we\u2019ve seen in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The two sides tried to negotiate and bring down the price, but ultimately the deal fell through.<\/p>\n

Financing conditions are another big reason why deals have fallen through this year, Rameez said.<\/p>\n

A financing condition clause in a real estate deal essentially says a sale is contingent upon the buyer\u2019s ability to secure a mortgage and the bank determining that the fair market value of the property is what the seller says it is.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEven a few thousand dollars up and down could mean they might not get financing approved,\u201d Rameez said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:05
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness Matters: Canadian home sales fell in February amid tariff uncertainty\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tFall recovery on the cards?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The second half of the summer saw some recovery in the housing market.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re really seeing some compelling signs that buyers are feeling a lot better about participating in today\u2019s housing market,\u201d Graham said, pointing to four consecutive months of housing sales going up in Canada according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that inventory that built up over those quiet months is now starting to be absorbed. It\u2019s becoming a little bit more competitive to be a buyer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Realtors are hoping for a hot fall housing market.<\/p>\n

According to RBC economist Robert Hogue a \u201cgradual recovery\u201d of the housing market will continue into the second half of the year, \u201csetting the stage for stronger demand in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Graham said it is still a far cry from the peak of the housing market in February 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe national average home price is still over $143,000 lower. It\u2019s still 17.6 per cent lower (compared to February 2022),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Canada is also still in a trade war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to make a long-term assessment because the headwinds in terms of tariffs and trade wars have not gone away. They\u2019re still extremely unpredictable,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Experts say the gradual recovery has more to do with the cyclical nature of the housing market, with more people typically looking for a new home in the fall than in the summer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTypically, the fall market is always our second strongest market of the year after the spring market,\u201d Zigelstein said.<\/p>\n

Some of the summer chill could carry forward into the autumn, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we expect that fall market to increase substantially? I think it will increase over the summer market, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to see typical fall numbers,\u201d Zigelstein said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many parts of Canada sweltered under high temperatures this summer, the country\u2019s housing market stayed chilly with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[50567,84,50568,626,1319,1294,15187,467,4655,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-103902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-2025-housing-market","tag-business","tag-buying-a-home","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-economy","tag-housing-market","tag-markets","tag-real-estate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}